1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to fish egg sorters and more particularly to an automatic fish egg sorter and counter for separating dead fish eggs from a batch of fish eggs containing both live and dead fish eggs and for counting both the number of dead and total number of eggs in the batch.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The market for live fish eggs of numerous types is growing due to the increasing number of fish farms raising fish for the commercial public and conservation agencies stocking streams and lakes for the sporting public not only in the United States but throughout the world. Fish eggs are sold on a "live" basis and the number of "dead" fish eggs must be determined in a batch of eggs for calculation of the price. Dead fish eggs are easily spotted due to their high degree of opaqueness while live fish eggs are translucent.
Dead fish eggs are presently sorted from a statistical sample, selected in a batch of fish eggs, by a tedious and expensive manual process wherein each egg of the sample is individually inspected, under human visual observation, for opaqueness and then sorted, by hand, into a separate container. A manual count of the dead fish eggs, as well as the total number of fish eggs in the sample, is generally performed simultaneously with the manual sorting process.
One major disadvantage of the prior art approach is that manual sorting may damage the live fish eggs resulting in the generation of dead eggs during delivery of the finally sorted live fish eggs. Another disadvantage is that the manual process is extremely slow and is, thereby, quite expensive resulting in higher prices for live fish eggs. Still another disadvantage is the normal human error in determining the number of dead fish eggs in the fish egg batch and the normal human error in providing an erroneous fish egg count. And finally, the prior art approach relies on a statistical sample and the delivery of fish eggs containing both live and dead fish eggs.